World Building - Question 8 - People

8) How many types of people?

The people in your world are the most important factor, more important than anything else discussed so far. This is because your characters come from your people, and more often than not so does your conflict.  People are the thinking factor of your story and your world. They are the ones who can drastically change landscapes, and cause simple misunderstanding to evolve into massive conflicts.

If there are only humans inhabiting your world the conflict is as character driven as it is event driven. What the humans do, to each other or to the environment, will play a role.  If you have humans and elves, events and interactions between the two peoples will help drive the conflict and the plot of your story.

Many science-fiction stories revolve around human interaction with aliens of a different planet.  Whether it be an alien invasion of Earth, or earthlings traveling to other planets and encountering other intelligent life forms.  What happens when that first contact occurs is the driving force of the story.

Several fantasy stories involve either the return of a magical race or species returning to a human world where magic has been relegated to non-existence.  Or vice-versa, where a human who doesn't believe in magic, somehow manages to enter a magical realm, or world, that throws everything they know out the window.

Then there are the stories that don't involve humans at all.  Stories where your primary people are not people at all, but animals.  Then you have to consider the types of interactions that might occur between different species of animals, and if there are any, between the animals and the humans in the story.

You have to remember, no matter what genre you're writing, the people in your story are the story.

Creature Creation Cont.

Other ways that can help with creating your creatures include drawing or sketching them out.  You don't have to be the world's greatest artist to do this, you can even trace a reference picture and then add the few details that change it into your creature.

Drawing out your creatures helps when writing about them because you can look at the image and determine if you're creature could actually do what you're describing it to do or not.

For example, if you create a squirrel like creature.  Say it is like a flying squirrel, in reality flying squirrels have a membrane of skin that connects the front and back legs.  They use this skin to "fly" across great distances from tree to tree.  Truthfully they only glide, but they do have the illusion that they can fly.  Now say your creature actually has wings, maybe bat-like wings, so it can actually fly.  Perhaps it is also venomous like a snake.  Not a nice creature like your average squirrel right?  XD

Now we have a basic description of the creature, so we can do a basic sketch.

And Viola!

Isn't it cute?  XD  Well with those fangs maybe not.  Now that we have the sketch we can determine some of what it might do in a story.  Like flicking of that big bushy tail when agitated or angry, maybe rubbing it's face with it's front paws or scratching behind its ear with a back paw like a dog.  I know, that's basic behavior for such a small creature.  Especially, if you've watched squirrels in real life.  Things it would do that a real squirrel wouldn't would be leap up into the air and fly over the forest, or strike like a snake to poison either an attacker, or evening meal.

Because of its large eyes you could say it was nocturnal, like a bat would be.  It might choose to roost in rocky outcroppings like a bat too.

With the short legs you know it doesn't have a long reach, so it's not going to stretch across a gap to grab something.  More likely it would just leap or fly across to get at what it wants.  It certainly wouldn't have any trouble getting into your bird-feeder, squirrel stop or not.  XD

An image also give you an idea of the size of the creature, whether you add a scale or not.  This is a small creature, it's drawn small, and it's based off of something that is small in real life.  So it would have the same problems a small creature would face when dealing with larger creatures or large objects.  Depending on the situation, and the little bugger's temperament, it might fight or attack even if there is an obvious escape route available.

As you write the story you can continue to reference the sketch.  It will help with determining what the creature would/could do in the story as it develops.

Creature Creation Questions

There are several different questions you need to ask yourself when creating a creature besides what the animal looks like. A strong basis in biology is helpful, but not needed. (I find my MS in Biology very useful.)

These are the questions I ask myself when I first start out making a new creature.

1) What kind of creature is it? (Cat? Dog? Fish? Bird? Mythical? Elemental? Etc.)

2) Where does it live? (Trees? Cliffs? Ocean? Stream? Lake? Pond? Forest? Mountains? Desert? Etc.)

3) What can it do? (Jump really high? Fly? Swim? Climb? Telepath? Magic? Etc.)

5) Can it be tamed? (Ridden? Kept as a pet? Pull a cart? Etc.)

6) Is it dangerous? (Poisonous? Predator? Really big for trampling? Etc.)

7) What does it look like? (Furry? Scales? Rough skin? Feathers? Etc.)

These seven questions can be considered the bare bones of your creature. As you build and describe it more you'll find more questions to ask and more things to describe.

Why Create Creatures?

Why create creatures? Aren't there enough real world animals out there? Well yes, there are plenty of real world animals out there that can be used in a story, but do they really fit?

I mean, come on, do you really expect to find a normal everyday horse on an alien planet or alternate universe. Or all the same kinds of birds that exist in real life? Are they really going to look/act/be the same?

Yes, if your story is set on a realistic Earth or human space colonization (even here you can create creatures for the alien worlds) you have a virtual cornucopia of creatures to draw from both scientifically proven and mythical. But, if it's not, then you have the opportunity to stretch your imagination beyond the everyday and create creatures to fill in the gaps.

What you have to remember when creating a world is that it is your world, and can be anything and everything you want it to be, and have whatever type of creature you want to have in it. Not just the same everyday animals that everyone knows.  Creating your own creatures is a fun and imaginative exercise.

Before I go any further I want to tell you that for all intents and purposes you will probably not create anything that hasn't been imagined before. Most all creatures created by artists or writers are inspired by something.  Whether it is from something someone else has done before them or from something that occurred in real life. Even the creatures of myths and legends were based on some factual evidence. (Dragon bones in China are fossilized dinosaur bones, the Greek cyclops is supposedly based on a mammoth skull.)

That said, don't think that you can't create something uniquely your own. It's all dependent on how you treat and describe your creature. Perhaps it has a unique power, or an extra set of limbs. Perhaps it's identical to an existing creature, but the story around it is completely different.

Ultimately, your creature becomes yours when you add that little bit of flair to it that no one else has.

World Building - Question 7 - Creatures

7) What kinds of creatures occur in this world?

The animals that occur alongside your characters are an important part of your world. These include the creatures they eat, the ones they train and make use of, and what they might keep as pets or companions.

Some important questions to ask about creatures in your world are:

1) Does your story depend on clearly defined creatures that occur in the real world? Are there horses? Chickens? Snakes? Dogs? Cats?

2) Is it a mix of real animals and mythical animals?

3) Are all the creatures in your world made up in your head?

It's important to ask these questions because if you're using creatures that you've created and no one else has ever seen or heard of you have to be able to describe them in such a way that your readers can picture them in their heads.  Of course they won't see exactly what you see, but they'll get a close consensus.

If you're using real life animals, whether mixing them with mythical/created creatures or not you don't have to worry as much.  A chicken is a chicken whether it's being gobbled down by a chimera or a lion.  A horse is a horse whether an elf is riding it or a human.

Mythical creatures tend to be a mix as to how you write them into a story.  Most everyone knows what a dragon or unicorn looks like.  Even a chimera you could get away with little detail about it and still have most all your readers know what you are talking about.  But, what about a Baku?  What the heck is that?  Well, in Japanese mythology the Baku is a great tapir with the body of a horse, the head of a lion, and the legs and paws of a tiger (Element Encyclopedia of Magical Creatures pg. 55).  Yeah, I hear Baku and I picture that.  XD  So even if you're using established mythical creatures you may need to add a bit of description so your readers know what you are talking about.

Alien Tech

Alien Tech can be fun, your characters don't necessarily have to understand it to use it, so you won't have to worry about all the nitty gritty details.  You can just say it's alien and that's all there needs to be to it.  Now, that being said you do need to know a few details about alien tech to make it believable.

For starters, is it a type of biotech?  Or is it some type of radioactive powered ray gun that works great as long as it stays intact, but if the powercell is damaged in any way it causes a nuclear meltdown equal to the Hiroshima bomb.  Or maybe the user just gets a bad case of radiation poisoning that may or may not be cured/curable.

Secondly, do humans have this tech, or is it limited only to the aliens that brought it/created it?  If a human can't use the tech due to some biosignature, and your story is past that part, then it would be unreasonable for your hero to forgo his AK-47 for the alien blaster he just confiscated off a fallen enemy.

So even though you can get away with very little when dealing with alien tech, there are a few details that you have to know.  Now most of this might be background knowledge that only you will ever see, while only giving your readers the juicy details, but you still need to know it in order to write the story.

Biotech

Now like I said, I'm not a tech person, so my stories have little beyond the basic tech of horse and cart, and normal things.  No computers or tablets, but you don't really need those things if you have a magic spellbook with an unlimited number of pages.  :p  But, not everyone is like me, nor does everyone write the same types of stories as I do, so I'll briefly explain (because I don't really know that much) the tech options that I see most of the time.  Starting with Biotech.

Now biotech is just what the word means.  Tech, obviously means technology, and Bio is Latin for life, so biotech is "living technology."  Now how you merge the two is what I think matters the most to a story.

Biotech can be anything, but is basically a machine of some sort made up completely or partially of living cells/parts.  In some stories I've read, the biotech is completely biological.  They literally grow a computer/ship/whatever by manipulating the base cells into what is wanted.  This can get very complicated and starts going into complicated Cellular and Molecular Biology to understand.  Thankfully, for writing a story you can leave the science in the background and just do the cool stuff.  :D

The most common biotech that I've read is where the machine is only partially made up of living cells/tissue.  This is the more simple of the biotechs that can be described.  You have the mechanical part of a computer/ship/whatever that works just like a normal machine, but for it to work properly you have to add some sort of living tissue/cells.  The simplest idea is hooking a living brain up to a series of wires and it can run a machine or becomes the central processor of a computer.  Another simple example would be an artificial limb that can hook up to the central nervous system of the body and work just like a normal arm/leg.  A more complicated version of this type of biotech would be when the ship is made up of a non-living body, but the space between the panels; the circuits, circuit boards, and wires; are all made up of living tissue and cells.  If the ship is ever damaged, the outside can be fixed rather easily, but the inside has to "heal" just like a living person would.

World Building - Question 6 - Technology

6) Is there technology?

In most of my stories technology is minimal. What little there is can be limited to basic carts, pulleys, gears and levers. No spaceships or flying cars, materialized foodstuffs or moving sidewalks.

The time period you set your story in will determine if and what kind of technology there is.

If your story has a lot of technology there are several questions you might want to ask, including:

1) Is it biotech?

2) Is it current or futuristic technology?

3) Is it alien technology?

4) Does everyone know how to use the technology?

5) Does the technology rule the world?

World Building - Question 5 - Buildings and Building Materials

5) Buildings and building materials?

This is important because you don't want a primitive tribe of africans or native americans living in a grand marble palace unless you're writing a post apokalypse story. Even then the building will be run down and crumbling because the people wouldn't know how to take proper care of it.

Likewise you wouldn't want a modern man or King living in a teepee or reed hut unless your modern man's a missionary or the King has gotten himself into a bad situation or he's the King of the tribe; in which case he'd have the biggest, grandest reed hut in the village.

Make sure the buildings and building materials of your people are appropriate for the time, place, and persons that inhabit them.

The King lives in the grand marble palace, the tribe in the reed huts or teepees.

World Building - Directions 2

I know I've already mentioned this, but I don't think I can emphasize it enough that the directions part of your story is vitally important.  In a story I'm writing this month I have a character running back and forth down streets.  At one point she stops and watches the shadows.  I haven't drawn a map yet, I'm just using a mental map right now, and I have her judging the time by the shadows, no she can't afford a watch, even a cheap one.  The building she's in faces East, so the shadows on the buildings across the way in the afternoon have to be tall, if not completely covering everything across the street.

Shadows and times are important and a good indicator of direction.  Unless your sun rises in the West and sets in the East, if your character is in an Eastern facing building, or looking out a window that faces East, due North, or due South, they're not going to look out on a beautiful sunset at the end of the day.

I'm fixing to draw a map now, at least of the small section of the city that this portion of the story occurs in.  It's not going to be there much longer, but making sure I send her in the right direction when it's there is important.

World Building - Question 4 - Directions

4) Directions? Which way are my characters traveling to get where they're going?

Again, this is where it's helpful to draw a map, especially if you didn't start one for question 3. You don't want your characters traveling South to reach the villain, when his fortress is to the North. You just need a basic map showing where things are in relation to one another. Don't worry about fancy symbols and map legends until your world is complete. Right now all you need to worry about is where things are and where your characters need to go.

World Building - Tundra

Tundra is the coldest of all environments. There are no trees on the tundra and little to no rainfall.

The Arctic tundra encircles the north pole, extending down to the forests of the taiga. Vegetation is short, growing low to the ground, and grouped together in tight bunches to protect from the cold. A permanently frozen layer of ground, called permafrost, keeps plants from having deep root systems.

Alpine tundra occurs in high mountain ranges around the globe. Like the Arctic tundra the vegetation is short, and there are no trees. A few stunted shrubs are sometimes seen. Unlike the Arctic tundra, the soil of the alpine tundra is well drained.

World Building - Grasslands

Grasslands are just what they sound like, grasslands. There are two types of grasslands that occur on our world; temperate and tropical also called savannas.

Temperate grasslands are the Great Plains of North America and Pampas of Argentina and Uruguay. The predominant plant life is grass.  Trees and large shrubs are virtually non-existent. Temperate grasslands make good farmland because the land is flat and soil very fertile.

Tropical grasslands or savannas cover half of the African continent and a good portion of Austrailia and India. Unlike temperate grasslands savannas have distinct wet and dry seasons. This is important because the dry season allows for fires to occur. If not for the dry season and its associated fires areas of savannah would become tropical forests. Individual trees are scattered throughout the savannah.

World Building - Forests

Forests often play a huge part in my own stories, but whether or not they will in yours will depend on the story you are writing. Most of my forests fall under everyone's perception of a forest, which is often classified as a temperate forest, but there are two other types of forest that can make for great story settings.

The temperate forest is the kind of forest that occurs in Eastern North America, and much of Europe and Northeastern Asia. There is great variation between the seasons in temperate forests, and they can be further classified by the amount of rainfall they receive.

Boreal forests are cold forests. They are also called taiga and cover much of Alaska, Canada, and Siberia. The growing season is very short and the winters are very long.

Tropical forests have the greatest number of species compared to temperate and boreal forests. They have high rainfall and only two seasons, rainy and dry. These are the rainforests that run along the equator. The Amazon in South America and Congo in Africa are the two most thought of.

World Building - Desert

As I said before, not all deserts are hot seas of sand. When most people say desert I picture the vast Sahara, but there are many types of deserts that occur. On our world alone there are four.

Hot and dry deserts like the Sahara, Chihuahuan, and Mojave are characterized by low rainfall, either spread out over the entire year, or in sudden short bursts. Daily extremes in temperature range from near or over 100 degrees during the day, to near freezing at night. There is little plant growth because of the lack of water and poor soil quality.  Most animals are nocturnal, remaining hidden during the day to avoid the oppressive heat.

Semi-arid deserts are similar to hot and dry deserts, except they have a little more rainfall per year and more plants consisting of low growing shurbs and spiny plants.

Coastal deserts occur in neo-tropical regions, the Atacama desert of Chile on the western coast of South America is a coastal desert. These deserts are created by cold ocean currents running parallel to the shoreline. Because of the strong winds that occur along the coast these are the most unstable deserts. Temperatures can get below freezing at night, and cold weather in winter often creates fogs that blanket the desert, blocking the sun.

A cold desert is just like its name suggests. It's cold!! They often have snow in the winter, and in some cases all year round (think Antarctica, yeah there's a lot of water because of all the snow and ice, but it's not a usable supply because it is snow and ice!). Temperatures in this type of desert are often below freezing, and plant and animal life is limited to small mammals and sage-brush where the ground isn't completely frozen.

World Building - Marine

The Marine biome is the largest biome on our planet because the majority of our world is covered by water. The vast oceans contain a great variety of life that we have only scratched the surface of. In fact the majority of the oceans still remain unexplored.

Oceans range from deep to shallow waters and the types of creatures change from one level to the next. Tides raise and lower the water level near the shore, changing the community from one time of day to another. Along rocky shores a vast difference can be seen in the high tide and low tide creatures. The further from shore one gets the deeper the water can be, heading into the open ocean.

Coral reefs occur in warm shallow waters and support a large number of animals, the majority of which are coral. Coral is interesting in and of itself, as it is an animal.

Estuaries are places where freshwater and ocean water meet and mix. Here there is often a high variety of animal life and many fisheries occur around them. Many types of ocean creatures need estuaries to reproduce. Estuaries often are the basis of many wetlands at the mouths of rivers spilling into the ocean.

World Building - Freshwater

Freshwater environments are wetlands, lakes, ponds, rivers, and streams where the water has a very low salt content. Animals adapted to this environment can't survive in high salt content places like the oceans, but freshwater is vital to all life on Earth.

Ponds and lakes can range from a few meters to a few miles wide. Some last only a few months, while other can last for hundreds of years. They tend to be isolated from other water sources, so there is little diversity of plants and animals, but that isn't to say there is little life in them. Often they have a few different species of plants and animals that occur in very large numbers.

Rivers and streams are flowing, or moving water sources. They move in one direction, (usually downhill. XD) and can be found everywhere. They have a source which can be anything from snow or glacier melt, springs, or even a lake, and flow to their end or mouth which can open into another river or stream, or even to the ocean. The water also changes as it flows. From being cold and clear at the source, to warm and murky at the mouth. As the water changes the plants and animals change with it.

Wetlands are not exclusively freshwater as some have very high salt contents, such as salt marshes. Still several are including bogs and swamps. Wetlands are areas of standing water that support a large number of different plants and animals.

World Building - Types of Environments

If you look at our own world you will see a variety of environments. All of which have their own weather patterns, plants and animals.

Briefly, I will discuss each type of environment here and go into more detail later.

On our world there are six major environments, or biomes as they are called. The Freshwater biome covers rivers, streams, ponds, lakes, and wetlands. The Marine biome covers the world's oceans, reefs, and estuaries. The Desert biome covers the different types of deserts that can occur. No a desert isn't just a hot, dry sea of sand. The Forest biome covers the three different types of forests; tropical, temperate, and boreal. The Grassland biome covers the savannahs and temperate grasslands. The Tundra biome covers the frozen lands above the artic circle and in the high mountains.

World Building - Environment

The environment or landscape you set your story in has many uses. It can be an antagonist in ways, with difficult terrain for your characters to traverse. It will define what kinds of wild animals your characters might encounter. Deer or deer-like creatures would be found in a temperate forest, while deadly snakes would be more likely found in tropical forests or deserts.

Environment will also deem where people will be found. A desert environment will have people gathered around water sources. While a grassland environment might have people scattered throughout as well as centered around farms and cities.

It can also affect the way your characters travel. It might be easy enough to ride a mount or drive a cart across a forest path or over a flat plain, but what about in the mountains? If there isn't a pass or road through the mountains you can't ride, and even if there is your characters may still have to walk depending on the steepness and stability of the ground. If a mount can't keep it's footing it can be more dangerous than an enemy attack.

Even though it is only the setting of the story, the environment can play a huge role.

World Building - Question 3 - Environment

3) What is the physical environment of the story like?

This is important because if you are writing a story in the middle of the desert you don't want to be describing the colors of falling autumn leaves unless your heroine from Maine is having a flashback or hallucination.

Even more important is if your story covers multiple landscapes from forests, to mountains, to the sea.

Important questions to ask yourself when considering landscape are:

1) What kind of environment are my characters starting in?

2) Will my story cover multiple environments?

3) What time of year is it?

4) What is the weather like?

5) How are my characters traveling? (This is important if you decide that it's raining and have to describe the mud sucking on your character's boots with each step.)

It's also a good idea to do a little research on the types of environment you're going to be using.  Knowing which types of plants and animals occur in the environment is vital.  You don't want to put a pine tree in a desert.  XD

I recommend this be where you start to draw your map for question 4. If your capitol city is in the center of a forest and your villain's hideout is in the mountains, then you know you need two landscapes on the map, forest and mountains, and you can mark the city and hideout now or later.